1. Field
The present disclosure relates to technologies for managing terminal information in an IPv6 environment.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A method of allocating an IP address (IPv6 address) to a terminal in an IPv6 environment may be classified as a method of allocating a stateless address or a method of allocating a stateful address.
In the method of allocating the stateless address, there is no separate DHCPv6 server, and a terminal connected to a network determines information of other terminals by a Neighbor Discovery (ND) protocol and then assigns its own IP. However, in the method of allocating the stateless address, IP allocation time information of the terminal is not included in the ND protocol, and therefore a time when the IP was initially allocated to each terminal may not be known.
In addition, in the method of allocating the stateful address, a separate DHCPv6 allocates an IP in response to the request of each terminal in the same manner as in IPv4. However, in the method of allocating the stateful address, a DHCPv6 server assigns the IP to the terminal based on a DUID value rather than based on a MAC address of the terminal, and therefore the MAC address of each terminal may not be known. However, the MAC address of the terminal is absolutely necessary for controlling the terminal in network equipment, and therefore, when using the method of allocating the stateful address, a separate means for acquiring the MAC address of each terminal is required.
That is, regardless of what method is used to allocate the IP address in the IPv6 environment, there are difficulties in acquiring all required information, and therefore there is a demand for a means for integrated management of information of each terminal.